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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26008888">quarter past midnight</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/komkommertijd/pseuds/komkommertijd'>komkommertijd</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Formula 1 RPF</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Non-Famous, Beaches, Dancing and Singing, Hijinks &amp; Shenanigans, Late at Night, M/M, Strangers</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-08-20</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-08-20</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 04:35:44</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,537</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26008888</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/komkommertijd/pseuds/komkommertijd</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>“Come on, Maxy, live a little,” Daniel urges him with a pout and he's so goddamn annoying, Max doesn't know why he's still there, can't quite find the thing about Daniel that draws him in, makes him stay, and tempts him to know more, to see where this is going.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Daniel Ricciardo/Max Verstappen</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>13</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>44</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>quarter past midnight</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Hello hello it's me again :) </p><p>I'm still running low on ideas at the moment, but I randomly started singing the song this was inspired by a few nights ago and couldn't help myself but write about it. So yeah, this happened, and I personally liked it quite a lot, so I'm annoying you all with it as well</p><p>A big thank you goes out to my amazing friend <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/extremesoft/profile">extremesoft</a> whom I've discussed the shopping cart scene with before, this fic would be so bland without it &lt;3</p><p>I'll stop pestering you now with my pointless rambling - thank you for clicking on this story, I really hope you will enjoy it </p><p>Have fun :)</p><p>(Title and inspiration come from <a href="https://open.spotify.com/track/1etiUDkISHELzQGMY79ryt?">Quarter Past Midnight</a> by Bastille)</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“My mom always told me to cut down on the energy drinks. I shouldn't have drunken that much Red Bull in one night.”</p><p>Daniel, that's his name if Max remembers correctly, shrugs and the corner of his lips twitch when he tries to suppress a smile. It would ruin the casualty of his words, give away his amusement. Max can see it in the glint of his dark eyes anyway, decides not to comment on it.</p><p>“My mom always told me not to mingle with strangers, yet here we are. Things don't always go according to plan, Maxy.”</p><p>“We're not mingling. And stop with the stupid nickname,” he grumbles, the empty can still clutched in his hand, cool metal in the warmth of the summer night, the artificial smell of blueberries in his nose and sticking to his lips. Daniel lifts his eyebrow judgingly until it almost disappears behind the curls loosely covering his forehead. The can in Max's hand gives in to his vice-like grip, dampens his fingers and caves with a cracking sigh.</p><p>“Sure we aren't, Maxy.”</p>
<hr/><p>Max has no idea where they're going. The noise of their steps echoes in his ears and down the street, they haven't seen a single car in ten minutes. Daniel sings some song Max doesn't recognize and probably wouldn't even if he knew it, thanks to Daniel's inability to hit even a single note – maybe the song is just that terrible. Somewhere a window closes, energetically, critique directed at Daniel, all so subtly telling him to shut the fuck up, something Max has been too scared to do, not scared of offending Daniel but scared of the ringing silence in his head, and he's too awake for his own taste still.</p><p>The vast amount of energy drinks consumed slowly kicks into motion and swipes the haziness of sleep deprivation out of Max's head, occupying every free square millimeter of space offered and making him so painfully aware of everything around him. The air smells like hot concrete and the oh so cliché saltwater that crashes against the coast somewhere near them, and like Daniel's painfully cheap deodorant that Max can't bring himself to hate despite all his efforts. He can hear music seeping out of open windows and hidden night clubs, faint like the breeze that ruffles through his awfully messy hair. He doesn't quite remember when exactly Daniel snatched his hat away, all he knows is that he probably looks just as ridiculous wearing it as Max looks without it. Somehow Daniel manages to still look decent despite all the ridiculousness, with the cap on backward that definitely doesn't fit the color scheme of his dark basketball shorts and the orange tank top that burns in Max's eyes whenever he lifts them from the ground briefly.</p><p>“Stop staring at my ass and hurry up, Maxy!”</p><p>“I wasn't looking at your ass, Daniel,” he frantically scrambles to defend himself, cheeks heating as he tries to catch up. It's no use if the ever-present smile on Daniel's face is anything to go by.</p>
<hr/><p>It is probably way past midnight when Daniel drags him across the empty parking lot and Max mentally goes through every mistake in life that led him here, with Daniel's warm hand wrapped around his wrist in a way that really shouldn't affect his pathetic self that much. Daniel is brimming with excitement that Max could never reach, not even with another sixpack of Red Bull, steps bouncing and light and Max briefly wonders whether the orange socks he's wearing aren't too warm for the current weather.</p><p>“We're not doing that.”</p><p>“Come on, Maxy, live a little,” Daniel urges him with a pout and he's so goddamn annoying, Max doesn't know why he's still there, can't quite find the thing about Daniel that draws him in, makes him stay, and tempts him to know more, to see where this is going. He sighs, defeated, and takes another look at the shopping cart in front of them. It's stupid, that's what it is, but Daniel is going to dig himself into the ground with how he's bopping up and down on the spot, so Max dramatically pinches his nose and exhales loudly before he looks at Daniel and rolls his eyes.</p><p>The shopping cart is, not much to Max's surprise, uncomfortable to sit in, too little space to store all his lanky limbs in there, metal digging into his skin and his neck hurting from the position he's in. Somehow he manages to shift around until he's able to sit a bit straighter, he even gets one of his legs in, and Daniel makes sure to not let the cart fall over with the uneven weight-distribution and Max's stupid wiggling motions. The artificial light on the parking lot almost blinds Max and blurs in front of his eyes when Daniel starts pushing the cart, using the barely-there incline to pick up speed before his feet leave the ground for him to stand on the metal bar and he leans forward to not lose balance, his chest pressed against Max's back. </p><p>It's a bit like a rollercoaster, mostly because the feeling of not being in control of what's happening makes Max's stomach churn in the same way. They're not even that fast, though he's not sure whether Daniel thought of a way to brake before, but it definitely feels fast. Max closes his eyes and leans his head back, careful to keep it away from Daniel's shoulder, feels the airstream on his skin and smiles when Daniel whoops in triumph.</p><p>Somewhere someone yells at them to get off the parking lot, threatening to call the police, and Daniel finally jumps off and brings the car to a halt, and he's laughing and still so close to Max, and he looks a bit like he's glowing in the light of the parking lot when Max opens his eyes and looks up at him. The stranger threatens them once more and Max scrambles to get out of the cart, which is even more difficult than getting in there in the first place. He stands up and tries to jump out without getting his foot caught on the metal, somehow lands just fine, and Daniel grabs his hand and starts running, abandoning the shopping cart.</p><p>They run until they're both laughing too hard to keep going and Daniel is still holding Max's hand tightly in his own, only letting go to collapse and lay down on the concrete of an empty street. He tries to catch his breath, stomach aching from laughing and running and Max feels like he might suffocate. For the first time in forever, it's a good kind of suffocation that makes his head light and his muscles tremble and Daniel sits back up and watches him with a smile so oddly soft and calm that Max's heart aches.</p>
<hr/><p>Daniel finds a better, and safer, place to lay down. Max tries to ignore the sand in his hair and focuses on how warm it still feels underneath his head, how not a single part of the city feels ready to let go of the summer heat. Growing up he's always loved those nights, the ones when temperatures didn't drop below 20 degrees, when the city is quiet beneath him and oh so alive all the same. When he lays at the beach with his knee bopping frantically, courtesy of the concerningly high dosage of Taurine in his veins, and looks up into the sky, only a few stars shining in the polluted city night, he wonders how all of this happened. Daniel was probably right, the universe works in mysterious ways and nothing ever goes according to plan. Normally, that thought would scare Max and make breathing just that tad bit too difficult, but now he's laying at the beach in the middle of the night with an almost annoyingly handsome stranger he's met on accident when they both ran into some couple making out in the toilets of a club Max's name already forgot, and it's so stupid and nothing of it makes sense and yet there's something inside of him, a voice in the back of his head that suggest that this is okay, that it could be normal if Max just let it.</p><p>“Stop thinking so hard, it'll make your pretty little head hurt,” Daniel offers. Max wants to slap him but he also doesn't want to move, so a glare is all the reaction he shows. Daniel laughs and shifts closer, not quite close enough for their arms to touch but close enough for Max to be painfully aware of it. He could move away, he probably should for his own good, but this position feels comfortable for once and it's fine, because it's Daniel, and that's one bad argument. Max figures that he doesn't always need a reason for everything, that sometimes he can just do things without having to find a valid explanation for it, so he reaches out and links his finger together with Daniel's, because he can and because he wants to and because it's comfortable and he misses it, strangely enough. Daniel doesn't comment on it and they just lay there in the sand, with their hands entwined and minds silent, watching the stars and the world spin around them.</p>
<hr/><p>“Daniel,” Max tries, and doesn't get much of a reaction. Instead, Daniel keeps bopping his head to the music that sounds blaring and obnoxious through the speakers of his phone. He's still holding Max's hand as he dances down the street and Max has no idea how late it is, but the last few people are leaving the bars and clubs of the city, some too drunk and some too sober, and some of them shoot Daniel concerned glances, while others laugh or simply shake their heads at his immature behavior. Daniel seemingly doesn't notice, or if he does, he certainly doesn't care much about it. Max would gladly walk with a two meter distance between them and pretend he doesn't know Daniel, which he technically doesn't anyway, but his palm feels warm against Max's own and he really doesn't want to let go just yet, allows himself to bask in that feeling for just a while longer. </p><p>“Daniel stop, people are watching!”</p><p>“Well, let them watch,” is all he gets in return before the phone slips into the pocket of Daniel's shorts and Max stumbles over his own feet when Daniel tugs on his hand, pulling him closer. He can feel the blush that creeps onto his cheeks and Daniel smiles when he wraps his arm around him and starts moving to the music. Max wants the sidewalk to open up and swallow him, too embarrassed by the strangers watching them dance. He can't dance, which makes matters even worse, but Daniel doesn't care, swaying him around and singing along to the music. Max can feel the heat seeping through his shirt where Daniel holds on to his waist and when he finally dares to lift his eyes to look up at him, Daniel smiles brightly and Max decides that for once, he maybe should stop caring about what other people think of him and let himself be silly and immature together with Daniel. He's tired of always trying to fit in, pretending to like certain things and lying about the things that mean the most to him in fear of getting judged, of being left alone when his friends and acquaintances notice just how bizarre he is and leave him behind to fend for himself.</p><p>Daniel simply embraces his own weirdness and winks at Max when their eyes meet and Max really admires how chill he is about all of it, about all those tiny things that make Max's brain hurt and that require him to think about life five or eight more times, about dancing on the sidewalk with a stranger he's only met an hour or two ago. Daniel is everything Max would want himself to be and he encourages Max in a way no one else ever has before. So Max rolls his eyes and smiles and starts singing along as well, because this night is too short for regrets and anxiety, for building up walls and coming up with things that would make someone like him. Daniel holds him closer and Max can almost feel his laughter vibrating in his own chest, and if people are watching them, they're probably just jealous.</p>
<hr/><p>“Is it okay if I kiss you?” Daniel asks when they're standing in front of the door, with Max two steps above him, key already turned around in the lock once. His eyes are close to falling shut now, all the pent up energy finally worn off after Daniel raced him uphill, and won, and his breath has just barely begun to recover. It's not that he hasn't thought about it before, because Daniel's lips do look very nice and promising despite all the shit that comes across them in an even and fast flow at all times that is almost too much to handle and concerning to normal people, but Max hesitates and tries to remember when the last time he kissed someone was. It feels like it's been half a century, which might be a slight exaggeration, and he suddenly feels the ever-looming anxiety returning and doubt makes his fingers tremble. And should he really kiss a stranger he's met only a few hours ago, someone he doesn't know much about except for his name and the stupid thoughts on his mind? And it's Daniel, he does a lot of stuff without thinking it through and without caring too much about the outcome, what if he doesn't really care about this either? </p><p>Sure, it's only one kiss, but Max hasn't kissed a lot of people in his 23 years of roaming the world and certainly never someone he's only known for one evening, someone he doesn't have feelings for. People don't fall in love with someone they've only known for a day. Infatuation? Sure, but not love, and Max doesn't kiss people he'll never see again. Maybe he should try it though, it's not harmful in any way, it certainly won't hurt him, and he really wants to kiss Daniel, who is still looking at him expectantly. There's worry visible in his eyes, maybe because he fears that he's just creeped Max out, or because Max hasn't replied anything in the past minute so far, or maybe because he actually does think about the things he does sometimes. Maybe he's been struggling with himself as well, maybe it's been on his mind all night, maybe he's been wanting to kiss him ever since they met in the club but felt the same about kissing strangers. Maybe it is okay, maybe it can be okay just this once.</p><p>Because it's Daniel, because he's been nicer to him than anyone else in a long time, because he hasn't judged him even once this night, because he's just as misunderstood as Max, because Max really needs to get his shit together just this once.</p><p>So Max smiles and lets it be okay.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Thank you so much for reading this until the end, that genuinely means the world to me! Your support and feedback is always greatly appreciated &lt;3</p><p>(You can find me on <a href="https://komkommertijd.tumblr.com/">Tumblr</a> if you want to talk to me there 💛)</p></blockquote></div></div>
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